


I Found Love on Instagram

by sarih93



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-29 15:19:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5132420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarih93/pseuds/sarih93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the Tumblr prompt 'I originally followed you on Instagram bc you’re hot and I’m thirsty but now I’ve developed actual feelings for you bc you’re a genuinely good person’</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Like most people do, Julie goes through Instagram when she’s bored at work. Today she’s mindlessly checking the randomness of the explore tab when a post catches her attention. It’s a girl, around her age, practicing yoga on the beach. Something about the photo draws Julie in and it’s not just how attractive the girl is (that’s just a really nice bonus). Julie goes to the girl’s profile and finds out her name is Christen Press and most of the things she posts about are related to yoga. Julie isn’t into yoga but still she clicks follow before going back to work.

For a couple of days she doesn’t think much about the girl. It’s not that she forgets about her because she always checks to see if Christen Press has posted anything new. Then there’s a new picture, it’s a selfie of Christen with two dogs. Christen has the biggest smile on her face and up close the girl is breathtaking. In the caption she mentions that they’re both rescue dogs and she encourages people to adopt pets.

It takes Julie a moment to realize that she’s grinning at her phone. There’s something about this beautiful girl being such a caring person that impacts Julie.

Now she doesn't just check to see if Christen has posted something new but occasionally she goes through her older posts. That's how she finds out Christen is actually two years older than her and she's a Stanford alumni.

Crushing this hard on someone she has never met is new to Julie. She has never even tried cyber dating and she’s definitely out of her comfort zone.  Momentarily she thinks that talking to someone about Christen will be helpful but she doesn’t know how to start that conversation. “I might be falling in love with a girl I’ve never met?” She already gets enough shit as it is for being a hopeless romantic, there’s no need to make matters worse.

Two weeks goes by and Julie is still crushing hard.

It's Friday night so she's in a bar and not home going through Instagram. She's having fun drinking with her friends, something she has missed from their college days when she hears a very loud laughter. She looks around curiously and notices that it's a girl with light brown hair that laughs like that. But what makes her choke on her drink it's the person next to that girl. It's Christen, as in the same Christen that she has been kind of stalking lately.

She’s gawking and choking at the same time until Meghan begins to pat her on the back, trying to burp her like a baby.

"Did the beer go down the wrong pipe?" Meghan asks.

"I follow that girl on Instagram," Julie blurts out and discreetly points towards Christen with her beer. Meghan, Morgan and Crystal almost fell out of their chairs to look at Christen.

“Ok?” Morgan says almost at the same time Meghan says “So?”

Crystal looks at Julie knowingly, “you think she’s hot.”

“I mean of course,” Julie admits, “but she’s also nice and funny in a dorky kind of way.”

Julie reaches for her phone to show her friends Christen’s latest photo in which she’s kissing one of her dogs.

“You should go talk to her, this is your chance,” Morgan says encouragingly because it’s been a while since Julie has shown this much interest in someone.

Julie freezes for a moment, clutching her phone. Until now she hadn’t realized that she could actually get up and talk to Christen. She had been so resigned to having to conform to staring at a screen.

“Do you want a wingwoman?” Meghan offers but Julie shakes her head, she has seen Kling in action before and there’s no way she’ll be of help right now.

She finishes her beer and makes her way towards Christen’s table. Her heart is beating so hard that it can’t be healthy but she powers through.

“Hi.” As an ice-breaker is not very good but that’s what came out of her mouth.

“Hi,” Christen replies looking understandably surprised.

“Hi,” Julie repeats dumbly. Out of the corner of her eye she can see Christen’s friends smiling. She takes a deep breath and tries again.

“Sorry to bother you. I follow you on Instagram and I think you’re great.”

“Thank you!” Christen looks flattered and smiles really wide, “do you practice yoga too?

“Uh, not often. Last time we,” she points at her table where Moe, Kling and Crystal aren't even trying to hide the way they're staring, “got kicked out of the class. Meghan, the short one, fell asleep on the mat, she even started to snore and we couldn't stop laughing so yeah we were asked to never return.”

By the time she’s ending the story Julie worries Christen would feel offended but she laughs and Julie’s heart skips a beat.

“How long have you practiced yoga?”

“Since sophomore year in college,” Christen responds and then she keeps talking about how much yoga and meditation means to her. Julie is hanging on to every word but she’s also observing the way Christen moves her hands as she talks to the point she doesn’t notice when Christen’s friends get up to the bar for more drinks.

"Sorry, I get really excited and start to ramble," Christen says bashfully.

"Don't be. I think it's great that you're so passionate about it." Julie smiles to reassure Christen and she returns the gesture.

“You know you never told me your name.” The way Christen says that makes Julie think that maybe she’s flirting.

“Oh you’re right. Let’s start over. Hi, I’m Julie Johnston.” She extends her right hand and Christen shakes it gently. Christen hand is soft and long after they have separated Julie can still feel her hand tingling.

“Hi Julie, I’m Christen.”

“It’s very nice to meet you.”

“Likewise, I don’t think I have ever met a fan before,” Christen says jokingly. Julie laughs along but cringes internally at the way she started the conversation.

Christen’s friends are about to make their way back to the table and Julie panics, if she’s going to ask for her phone number this is the moment to do it. But Christen makes her feel a little shy because of how perfect she seems to be.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to your friends.” Julie waves goodbye and goes back to her table. She figures this would make a good story but she’s never going to see Christen again.

Next day Julie has a new notification on Instagram: christenpress has started following you.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “This whole thing seems straight out of a chick flick.”   
>  “But that’s the only thing straight about it.”

Julie feels like a teenager again. Since Christen started to follow her on Instagram they’ve been flirting. Sort of. Christen has liked a couple of her most recent selfies, including one were she’s making funny faces with her sister that she thought she had deleted. That led to Julie mentioning Christen on funny yoga posts like those comparing yoga on Instagram with yoga on real life.

This thing they’re doing is fun but it’s not enough for Julie, she wants more than interacting through an app.

“I need your help,” Julie says and shoves her phone on Morgan’s face.

“Hello to you too JJ.” Morgan stays on the couch looking bewildered while Julie paces.

“Remember that girl at the bar last week? We’ve been talking on Instagram but now I want to ask her out on a date and for that I need her phone number. How do I do that?”

 “I thought you asked her at the bar?” Kling asks, she had been on the kitchen but she overheard the whole thing.

Julie flops down on the couch next to Morgan. “No, I chickened out and now I don’t know how to ask for her number through Instagram.”

“She commented ‘I’ve never seen someone actually look cute in their own selfies’? She’s totally flirting with you,” Morgan says in disbelief before passing Julie’s phone to Meghan.

 “This whole thing seems straight out of a chick flick.”

 “But that’s the only thing straight about it.”

Julie flips them off. Meghan chuckles but then she makes a thoughtful face, “speaking of chick flicks, Moe, you just gave me a great idea.” She claps excitedly before sharing her genius plan.

\-------------

 

It’s weird for Christen to receive any posts through Instagram Direct and she’s even more intrigued when she sees it’s a video from Julie. But still she opens it.

In the video Julie is holding a white cardboard that reads “ _Hi_." She drops that cardboard to show another with the message, " _I just wanted to say_." And then another one, " _in case it isn’t clear already_." " _That I like you_ ," Julie looks down at her handwriting before smiling timidly back at the camera. " _If by any chance you like me back_." The last cardboard just has a phone number written in it.

Christen smiles in disbelief at her phone screen. No one has ever done something like this for her. This reinforces what she already knew of Julie and how charmingly dorky she was.

She’s about to send Julie  a text but she changes her mind. She dials instead.

“Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Christen,” she stops there, unsure of what to say next.

"Hi!" Julie says enthusiastically.

"Hi," she repeats, unknowingly echoing their first encounter. "I didn't know you were a Love Actually fan."

Julie laughs. "I'm not, I had some help from my friends," she admits.

"Well everyone did a good job." Christen paces through her apartment

"I almost didn't send it; I was afraid you’d think it was too corny."

She shakes her head although she knows Julie can’t see her. "It was a nice surprise," she says softly.

"I'm glad you think so because I wanted to ask you out."

“Really?” Christen asks, smiling at Julie’s failed attempt at sounding casual.

Julie makes an affirmative noise. "Are you free on Saturday? Around 3?"

“I am”

“Great! Uh I can pick you up, unless you prefer we meet up, that's okay too." Julie’s enthusiasm is palpable and contagious through the phone.

"I'll text you my address"

"Great!" "That's great, I'll see you on Saturday?"

“Until Saturday,” Christen confirms.

\--------------------

 

At exactly 2:45 Christen gets a text from Julie saying she’s on her way to pick her up. Julie had refused to tell her where they were going but she told Christen to grab a sweater which confused her because why would they need sweaters in Los Angeles in May?

At 2:55 Christen grabs her sweater and goes downstairs to wait for Julie. Julie shows up punctual and she even finds a parking spot a few meters away from Christen’s building.

Julie's face illuminates when she sees Christen waiting for her and when she gets close there's an awkward moment when she seems to want to give her a hug but then the blonde girl takes a step back.

"Hi," she greets her instead and waves, "you ready to go?"

"Yes, but I still wish I knew where we were going"

"But then it wouldn't be a surprise. I think you're going to like it," Julie promises and makes her way back to the car, leaving Christen no other option but to follow her.

Inside the car Christen notices the blueprints on the backseat of the car. “You know I never would have guessed you were an architect,” she admits.

Julie laughs, “did you think I just spend all of my time checking your Instagram?” she teases before adding “I get that a lot actually. But buildings and blueprints always made sense to me, probably because my dad is also an architect so it might be genetic.” 

“That’s nice. I guess you’re really close to your dad?”

Julie nods emphatically “My family is very important to me.”

Christen is glad Julie is paying so much attention to the road that she doesn’t notice the ridiculous smile on her face.

“You know what I saw the other day on TV that I really liked?”

 “What?” Christen asks confusedly because of the abrupt change of topic.

“The Buzzer on Fox Sports.” Julie quickly looks at Christen and smiles goofily.

“Really?”

“Sure, why wouldn’t I? You’re on it,” Julie responds. Christen blushes and she tries to hide it by looking out the window. Once she sees where they are it gives her an idea of what Julie’s plan is.

 “You’re taking me to the aquarium?”

“Took you long enough, we’re almost there. Let’s hope I can find a parking spot quickly, we’re on a schedule.”

“This explains the sweater I guess.” Christen never would’ve picked an aquarium for a first date. Then again by now she should expect Julie to surprise her.

After parking the car Christen starts to feel excited about the aquarium. Growing up she absolutely loved going to aquariums and zoos but it’s been a while since the last time she came to one.

She quickly makes her way to buy tickets but Julie stops her.

“I took care of everything, come on,” she says and leads Christen to the entrance by the arm. They only separate so that Julie can look for the tickets in her purse.

“I love this place, sometimes when I'm stuck on a project I come here to think,” Julie shares before smiling mischievously, “but right now, we’re going to do something really coo.” She looks around for a moment before taking off in the direction of the penguin's exhibit.

"What are we doing?"

"We are going to meet a penguin." Julie is practically bouncing with excitement.

Once inside the penguin’s exhibit one of the aquarium employees takes them to the Penguin Encounter. It’s a room with only an L-shaped bench and a small table on the middle, decorated like the ocean. Despite having the entire bench to themselves Julie and Christen sit close together.

They don’t have to wait long before an animal trainer shows up carrying a penguin; it's bigger than what Christen imagined.

"Hello and welcome to the Penguin Encounter. I’m Taylor and this is my friend Max." The trainer sits with the penguin on her lap.

"Max here is an African penguin, also known as the "jackass" penguin for its donkey-like bray." Almost on queue the penguin demonstrates.

The trainer shares a lot of information about the African penguins and lets them touch Max's wings and pet him on his back. Julie is absolutely mesmerized by the penguin and she listens closely to everything the trainer says. Christen additionally gets to feed him a sardine.

When their time is over Taylor tells them to wave at Max and to their delight the penguin waves back.

"That was so incredible," Christen gushes.

"The penguin was even cuter than what I expected."

They walk around all the other exhibits, looking for cute or interesting animals to share with the other. Afterwards they head to the cafeteria. Christen insists on paying for their coffee since Julie took care of everything else.

“I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun on a date,” Christen admits. Julie blushes, the same way she did when they first met and it makes Christen smiles because back then she had no idea of how things would work out.

“Me either actually.”

They didn’t talk again while they drank their coffee but it was a comfortable silence. They already knew a lot about each other, the kind of things people usually share on their first date so now there was no pressure, no fear of awkward silences.

On the drive back to Christen’s apartment they talk about music. Julie admits she likes country music and something about the way she says it makes Christen laugh.

The almost 20 minutes ride seems shorter and now it’s time to say goodbye but there’s one thing on Christen’s mind.

“If you don’t even like yoga, why did you follow me on Instagram?”

“Honestly? I was bored at work and you’re really pretty,” Julie responds bashfully. Christen rolls her eyes at her. “I’m really glad I did though,” she adds.

“Me too,” Christen says before giving Julie a quick peck on the lips and exiting the car.

Back in the car Julie’s lips are still tingling while she sits there dumbfounded. Eventually she drives away replaying their day together on her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be a small epilogue on my blog, sometime this week I guess.


End file.
